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Thread: Highorbits Engineer Guide MkII

  1. #1

    Highorbits Engineer Guide MkII

    Last Changed: 19th January 2006

    This guide is intended to draw together as much information as I could to provide an easy to understand guide for Engineers of any level.

    Thanks in advance to Lyricia, Virral, Elbo, Kzak, Caddock, TheDeacon, Brioni, Jayde and anyone else who has responded with suggestions or additions for the material I've used.


    Introduction

    So you started an Engineer? First of all let me welcome you to the profession and to our forum, don't be afraid to ask questions here no matter how silly they may seem.

    I'd like to say right at the beginning that this guide isn't only aimed at new players, I've tried to add in as much information, or links to information that should hopefully be able to satisfy a large number of commonly asked questions on these forums.

    What this guide doesn't do

    Provide you with a step by step list of things to do to make your character uber.

    Contents

    1. Choosing a Breed
    2. Starting to Play
    3. Controlling Yourself and the Bot
    - 3.1. Macros
    - 3.2. Advanced Macros
    - 3.3. Scripts, Variables and Chat Commands
    - 3.4. Pet Command & Maximum Range
    4. Affording your Engineer
    - 4.1. Begging
    - 4.2. Soloing Missions
    - 4.3. Blitzing Missions
    - 4.4. Mission Locations
    - 4.5. Jewelery
    - 4.6. Monster Parts
    5. Skills
    - 5.1. Essential Skills
    - 5.2. Secondary Skills
    - 5.3. Perks
    - 5.4. Resetting Skills
    - 5.5. Buffs
    - - 5.5.1. General Buffs
    - - 5.5.2. Engineer Buffs
    - - 5.5.3. Where to get the Nanos
    - - 5.5.4. Meta-Physicist Buffs
    - - 5.5.5. Trader Buffs
    - 5.6. Items
    - 5.7. Bots, Buffs and Over-Equipping (OE)
    - - 5.7.1. What are Over-Equipping Rules?
    - - 5.7.2. "What has that got to do with me?"
    - - 5.7.3. Doing the Maths
    - - 5.7.4. "There must be an easier way?!"
    - - 5.7.5. Bugged Bots
    6. Armour Choices
    7. Weapon Choices
    - 7.1. Weapon Skill Perks
    - 7.2. Weapons for Fighting With
    - - 7.2.1. Pistol Based Weapons
    - - 7.2.2. Grenade Based Weapons
    - - 7.2.3. Shotgun Based Weapons
    - - 7.2.4. Martial Arts
    - 7.3. Weapons for Improving your skills
    - 7.4. Other skills
    8. Trimmers & Android NCU Upgrades
    - 8.1. Permanent Effect Trimmers
    - - 8.1.1. Attack Speed Trimmer
    - - 8.1.2. Taunting Trimmer
    - 8.2. Temporary Effect Trimmers
    - 8.3. NCU Upgrades
    9. Implants
    - 9.1. Profession Specific Pre-made Implants
    - 9.2. Implant Design
    - 9.3. Common Issues
    - 9.4. Sample Implant Design
    10. Soloing & Teaming
    - 10.1. Terms & Concepts
    - 10.2. Pets in Combat
    - 10.3. Solo Play
    - 10.4. Team Play
    - 10.5. Offensive and Defensive Auras
    - - 10.5.1. Damage Shield Debuff
    - - 10.5.2. Reflect Shield Debuff
    - - 10.5.3. Blind (Add All Off Debuff)
    11. Trade Skills
    - 11.1. Introduction to Trade Skills
    - 11.2. Trade Skill Processes
    - 11.3. Charging for Trade Skills
    - 11.4. Special Tools
    - 11.5. Maximum Skills for each Breed
    - 11.6. Tutoring and Why It's Important
    - 11.7. Where to find out more
    12. Player Vs Player
    - 12.1. Combat Specialist or Trade-skill Specialist
    - 12.2. Skills
    - 12.3. Weapon Choices
    - 12.4. Ranged or Close Combat?
    - 12.5. Nanos
    - 12.6. Tactics
    - 12.7. Things to watch out for
    13. Anything Else
    - 13.1. Making References & Tracking Damage
    - 13.2. Where to find parts for the Engineer Pistol
    - - 13.2.1. Solar-Powered Pistol
    - - 13.2.2. Solar-Powered Tinker Pistol
    - - 13.2.3. Solar-Powered Mender Pistol
    - - 13.2.4. Solar-Powered Mechanic Pistol
    - - 13.2.5. Solar-Powered Machinist Pistol
    - - 13.2.6. Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol
    - - 13.2.7. Solar-Powered Master Engineer Pistol

    1. Choosing a Breed

    This the first decision that effects your character. Each breed is different. I've included the Breed Ability caps for both level 200 and level 220, just ignore them if they make no sense.
    • Nanomage - The most intelligent of all the breeds, which makes this one the best at using nano skills. However, this intelligence is not without a price, Nanomage is also physically the weakest of all breeds with the least hit points. Nanomage is also the best breed for all trade skills except Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

      Level 200 / Level 220

      Strength 464 / 664
      Agility 464 / 664
      Stamina 448 / 748
      Intelligence 512 / 912
      Sense 480 / 780
      Psychic 512 / 912
    • Solitus - The middle ground, doesn't excel at any of the abilities, but is a good all-round breed. Good for any profession and an excellent choice if you're unsure about the breed to start with.

      Level 200 / Level 220

      Strength - 472 / 772
      Agility - 480 / 780
      Stamina - 480 / 780
      Intelligence - 480 / 780
      Sense - 480 / 780
      Psychic - 480 / 780
    • Opifex - Bonuses to Agility make this breed better at using certain kinds of weaponry than the others. Opifex are also the best breed at certain Tradeskills (Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering).

      Level 200 / Level 220

      Strength 464 / 764
      Agility 544 / 944
      Stamina 480 / 680
      Intelligence 464 / 764
      Sense 512 / 912
      Psychic 448 / 748
    • Atrox - The least intelligent of all the breeds this one remains an unusual choice for the Engineer profession. The main advantage of the Atrox breed is the extra hit points you get. Since Engineers generally aren't so keen on getting hit at all this advantage tends to be less important to us.

      Level 200 / Level 220

      Strength - 512 / 912
      Agility - 480 / 780
      Stamina - 512 / 912
      Intelligence - 400 / 600
      Sense - 400 / 600
      Psychic - 400 / 600

    2. Starting to Play

    When you first start any profession on Rubi-Ka you are given a small number of items to start you off.

    For an Engineer these are:

    The most important thing you'll have here is your very first Robot Shell. As well as some health kits, first aid kits and if you're Omni or Clan a blank token board.

    You may need to raise some of your skills to upload these nano crystals and activate the bot. So either press the "U" key or the button at the bottom of your screen called "SKL". You'll find the skills you need under "Nano & Aiding".

    You can see a description of any item or player by holding down shift and left clicking on it. The description contains all the information about the skills you need to wear or use the item.

    If you need to remake your robot you can do so by right clicking on the Nano Progam under the Space section. This makes a bot shell in your inventory again. Bots cost credits though, so make sure you kill a few creatures before losing your first pet.

    This bot will last you until you terminate it, it dies, or you log off. If you lose your connection the bot will wait for 2 minutes for you to reconnect before powering down.

    3. Controlling Yourself and the Bot

    Pets are controlled through the command line (ie hit enter, type in the command). But don't panic there are ways to make this much easier!

    3.1. Macros

    You can either have the game help you with this or do them yourself. The command "/macro" creates a little icon for your to place on your shortcut bar (press "Y" if you can't see that). Which then allows you to perform the command just by pressing a number from 1 - 0 depending on it's position on the bar.

    You'll soon see what I mean after you've tried it if that didn't make sense.

    If you want the game to help you simply type in "/help pet" and click on each of the links to create the macro.

    If you'd like to use your own then the following may be helpful:

    /macro Attack /pet attack
    /macro Report /pet report
    /macro Wait /pet wait
    /macro Follow /pet follow
    /macro Behind /pet behind
    /macro Hunt /pet hunt
    /macro Rename /pet rename "Mini Slayer"

    Since our pet can't heal the "/pet heal" command is useless to us.

    With regard to the command "/pet hunt" - Pet hunt uses an algorithm that chooses the next target by shortest line distance. This means it has a tendancy to choose targets in a fairly unpredictable fashion. That is it won't follow a logical room to room path if a mob in another room is closer even if it has to run through 4 rooms to get to the "closer" mob. Its highly recommended that you use this command with extreme caution.

    Just a quick couple of notes on bot names:

    They must be at least 4 characters long.
    If you have a space in the name you must inclose the name in "".
    According to the terms you agree to play the game you cannot name the bot to the same name as an NPC character or static mob.
    If you'd like a colourful name for your bot then head over to Kuren's site to his colour helper here.

    3.2. Advanced Macros

    When you reach level 100 you get the option of a Mech Dog pet in addition to your main attack pet. You can continue to control both pets through a single general command or you can control each seperately.

    With a correctly written command you can make it refer to a specific pet by including the pet name in the command.

    All pet commands you use take the form:

    /pet "<pet name>" <command>

    eg /pet "Bob the Slayer" attack
    or /pet "Ralph the Mech Dog" attack

    These types of macro's work particularly well in conjunction with rename macros, otherwise the macro would have to be updated every time the pets name changed. Finally, if you use colourful names then the command must reflect that or it won't work.

    3.3. Scripts, Variables & Chat Commands

    Scripts are text files that sit in a Scripts folder inside of the Anarchy Online program folder. Scripts do not require any extension (the last part of the file name, like .txt) and will work with and without.

    These files are command lists and are fairly versatile.

    The following script has no real purpose, but should provide enough of an example for script creation.

    Filename: Attack

    /w Eek! Look out there's a nasty %t!
    /pet chat "Fear not master I shall kill it for you!"
    /delay 5000
    /v Well go on then
    /pet chat "Could you move this pebble?"
    /pet attack
    /me sighs

    This script would be called by entering the it as a command into AO (ie "/Attack") which would then run through the commands one at a time.

    Variables are useful things that allow us to name things in chat or commands without typing the full name.

    %t is replaced with the name of your target
    %m is replaced by your own name
    %f is replaced by the target you are currently fighting
    %1 - %5 are replaced by the words immediately following the script name.

    Examples:

    Filename: fighting
    Called with: /fighting

    Attacking --> %f <--

    Filename: buffs
    Called with: /buffs <variable 1> <variable 2> <variable 3> (eg /buffs MPGuy mochams 500k)

    /v Hi %1, Could I trouble you for composite %2 please. Paying %3.

    Shortcuts for certain chat channels are also available to you.

    /s is shout
    /v is talk in vicinity
    /w is whisper
    /g is talk in team chat
    /o is talk in organisation (guild) chat
    /me refers to yourself

    Finally it's also possible to change chat channel like this as well.

    /ch clan ooc changes to Clan OOC chat
    /ch team changes to team chat

    It will also recognise partial names provided it's enough to get a unique match. So if your guild was called "Super Guild Version 12.4" then "/ch Super" would be enough to switch to that channel.

    3.4. Pet Command & Maximum Range

    This section covers two issues.
    • Command Range - You can only issue commands to your bot within a relatively small range (approximately 10 - 15 metres). Issuing commands outside of this range will have no effect.
    • Maximum Range - Pets will cease fighting and return to us if the pet gets 50 metres or further away from us. You will recieve a warning and some time to get back in range when this happens.

    Other important resources:

    Beginners Guide
    Anarchy Online Manual - The Offical game manual
    Dictionary - Having trouble with the language?
    New Arrival Forum - a Good place to get quick answers to your questions.
    Last edited by Highorbit2; Jan 19th, 2006 at 16:51:38.
    Highorbit - Supreme Creator - Atlantean - 205 - Armour
    Andrele - Sorcerer - Atlantean
    Simarion - General - Atlantean - 200
    Zendia - Doctor - Atlantean
    Roanna - Preserver - Atlantean
    Littleorbit - Priest - Atlantean

    Shameless Self Advertising: Engineer Guide

  2. #2
    4. Affording your Engineer

    Getting enough credits to fund your character is pretty hard to start off with, this is the same for all professions, but I think more so on those that depend on their nanos.

    If you find you don't have enough credits to afford the next bot up, then slow down! Take a little while to gather those credits up and relax a little. Levelling is not the most essential part of the game, having fun is.

    "It's not the end of the journey that matters, it's the path you take to get there"

    Before you go any further it's always worth checking out the thread on the New Arrival forum:

    Making LOTS of money as a new player

    Now you've done that we'll take a closer look at some things that can help you make a few credits.

    4.1. Begging

    Don't do it. Too much of this happens already and this may well get you ignored by a large quantity of the higher level population. There are other ways, they may take longer but you won't annoy anyone in the process.

    4.2. Soloing Missions

    Before we begin looking at missions as a way of making credits make sure you get Clicksaver.

    Get a Lockpick, nothing worse than being stopped by a locked door, or unable to steal a poor mobs precious belongings because they were inconsiderate enough to have locked it away.

    Also make sure that you get yourself a few backpacks to put all the items you loot in. Then it's simply a case of kill and loot everything you can, after all there's no team there with you.

    In the next couple of sections I'll include a mission settings for you to try out. The settings below gives you a high chance of human mobs. The choice is then between XP and Money as the reward.

    We use the Good / Bad setting in this case just to get missions that are nicer to do. That is avoiding assasination missions and observing missions, as well as return item mission since we want the most stuff for ourselves!

    Mission Setting: Bad, Money, Order
    Mission Setting: Good, XP, Order


    Soloing missions is an excellent (if time consuming) way of getting items and credits for yourself, and it's well worth learning to do.

    Soloing team missions is even better than solo missions if you can. Of course to do this you at least temporarily needs a team mate.

    4.3. Blitzing Missions

    Mission Setting: Bad, Money, Order

    Blitzing is a process of running, or calming (if you're an NT, Trader or Crat) through a mission purely for the reward, that means you don't kill anything. Runspeed is probably the most important skills for doing this.

    The chance of recieving an xp reward is directly related to the percentage of mobs killed in a mission, we don't want an XP reward since we're not going to kill any mobs.

    Always save (use Insurance Terminal) before you attempt a blitz, this way if you die during a blitz you have lost nothing except for the couple of minutes it takes to recover.

    4.4. Mission Location

    Location is important, the further away from the mission terminal the mission is the more credits you'll get as a reward. This doesn't mean we have to run into the middle of nowhere to get a couple of hundred more credits though. Check out getting missions from other cities or towns and see how easy they are to get to.

    4.5. Jewelery

    If you find yourself looting a lot of ingots, gems, rings then we can make these more valuable by turning them into jewelery. Check out this guide for what you need and how to do it. Then you can turn what are normally junk items into rings, which will get you more credits from the shops.

    To make Jewelery you'll need quite a lot of Agility and Mechanical Engineering.

    4.6. Monster Parts

    With the use of a Bio-Comminutor (found in the Trade section of any general store) Monster Parts can be converted to Blood Plasma. These sell for substantially more than the monster parts to shops. This can be a nice way to make a bit of quick cash.

    Converting Monster Parts to Blood Plasma will need a bit of Pharma Tech.

    Check out the trade skill section later on to see what others you might want to do.

    5. Skills

    5.1. Essential Skills

    This section covers the skills that are essential or useful to you as you progress as an engineer.

    All skills are effected by something called "dribble down" from the abilities, this means a small increase in that skill based on the ability. As well as this skills can only be raised a certain amount before the ability needs to be raised as well.

    The most important skills for us are those that make our bots, without those we're not much good.

    So at every step the following three are essential for us:

    Intelligence - Effects all nano skills, most trade skills
    Matter Creation - Bot Creation
    Time and Space - Bot Creation
    Computer Literacy - NCU, Belts & Grid
    Matter Metamorphesis - Shields
    Treatment - Med kits, nano kits, implants
    Body Development - This increases your Hit points
    Nano Pool - Increases your Nano points

    5.2. Secondary Skills

    Any other abilities you raise depend on your Breed choice. As Solitus I always suggest you raise Agility and Stamina (in addition to Intelligence).

    There are two reasons for that, the first is that those two abilities also effect "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space". The second reason is that it's very easy to make implants that depend on those skills.

    Some of the other skills you might be interested in are below (Any weapon skills are covered in the next section):

    Run Speed - Self explanetory
    Biological Metamorphesis - The bot heals are listed here. All Bot heals are mission reward only.
    Psychological Modification and Sensory Improvement - Raise to at least 66
    Map Navigation - Optional, but if you raise to 80 you can have the important map upgrades (people & monsters) quickly. Otherwise use temporary implants to increase and upload maps as you level.

    5.3. Perks

    Provided you have the Shadowlands expansion pack you will have access to Perks.

    You'll recieve a perk once every 10 levels up to level 200, and one perk for each level over level 200 giving you a total of 20 perks at level 200 and 40 at level 220.

    To access the Perk menu press Shift and P.

    You can a Perk configuration tool to help you decide which you'd like here thanks to Jayde.

    There are no definate answers to which perks to choose, that is down to how you want to play your character and what you'd like to do.

    Remember that Perks are cumulative, and the benefits of each level and each perk stack.

    A couple to pay close attention to are the two below that increase our "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" skills.

    These are all the available levels of the Gadgeteer Perk.

    These are all the available levels of the Mechanic Perk.

    It's well worth considering Bio Shielding. This provides you with some healing capabilities as well as an Absorb Shield that gets bigger the more points you put into Bio Shielding up to a maximum of 10000 at level 201.

    Don't panic if you make a mistake with Perks, while it can take time it's not impossible to correct a problem. You are allowed to reset one perk point every 72 hours.

    5.4. Resetting Skills

    Before I begin on this section, please read and understand the following:

    IP Reset points provide the only method for you to change a character. This specifically relates to high level characters since those require the most work.

    The game does change, the rules are rewritten on a regular basis and you cannot say for sure that the choices you make now will still be the best a year from now. If you have used all your IP Reset points you will have no way at all to adapt.

    In many instances it is better to re-roll a character than use one of these points (before level 100 for instance).

    If you're short in IP for a particular skill it is always better to level if you can rather than use one of these points.

    There is no mechanism for getting more of these points.

    It is possible to reset skills if you need to. Every character has access to a fixed amount of IP Reset Points, and you'll get a few more every time you hit a title change (but not at level 205).

    Title Changes at levels: 15, 50, 100, 150, 190 and 205

    Each point allows you to reset a single skill, and returns all of the IP you have spent in that skill allowing you to spend it elsewhere.

    To do this you have to remove all weapons, equipment, armour and implants.

    The Map Navigation skill cannot be reset.

    5.5. Buffs

    5.5.1. General Buffs

    The first buffs you should look at getting in the game are the "Proficiency" nanos. You can find a list of Proficiency nanos here. It's highly advisable to get these as soon as you can.

    After these you should look at getting the appropriate "Expertise" nanos. You can find a list of Expertise nanos here. Again it is advisable to get these as soon as you can.

    A few other general nanos to get as an Engineer are Regeneration which increases the rate your bot will heal, Healing which you can use to heal your bot a small amount and Pet Warp which warps your pet to you, useful if it ever gets stuck or lost.

    5.5.2. Engineer Buffs

    You can find a list of all Engineer nanos here.

    This list contains all of the new nanos added to our profession with Shadowlands.

    Each of these Knowledge Nanos adds 80 to trade skills as listed.

    Each of these Mastery Nanos adds 125 to trade skills as listed.

    One particular line to pay close attention to is our attack rating buffs for the bot. These are very good for increasing the amount of damage your bot does.
    Last edited by Highorbit; Mar 22nd, 2004 at 14:33:16.
    Highorbit - Supreme Creator - Atlantean - 205 - Armour
    Andrele - Sorcerer - Atlantean
    Simarion - General - Atlantean - 200
    Zendia - Doctor - Atlantean
    Roanna - Preserver - Atlantean
    Littleorbit - Priest - Atlantean

    Shameless Self Advertising: Engineer Guide

  3. #3
    5.5.3. Where to get the Nanos

    As with all professions a large amount of Nano Formulea are available in the shops, however after quality level 125 you have to find things for yourself.

    All nanos available in the shops are also available as mission rewards. Most nanos above QL125 are available as mission rewards as well, except for those below.

    Clicksaver is useful program to help you find the items / nanos you want without having to read the description for every single mission.

    Please note that Funcom do not support Clicksaver in any way.

    This list of Nanos are only available as outdoor boss loot.

    This list can be found as mission rewards with a couple of notable exceptions.
    • Kamikaze bots do not exist in the game at all and the entry for those nanos should be ignored.
    • Beacon Warp is mission reward / drop only.

    All the bot heals are available as mission rewards or mission loot but not in the shops.

    All the Sympathetic and Disruptive nanos are available as mission rewards or mission loot but not in the shops.

    The Trade skill Knowledge line are available in Schoel. QFT and EE Knowledge both in the Garden the rest in the Sanctuary.

    The Trade skill Mastery line are available in Adonis and Penumbra. Weapon Smithing Mastery is in Penumbra Garden all the rest are in Adonis Sancutary.

    Team Beacon Warp is a rare drop from any mob, or a common drop from Polymorphed Lunatic in Deep Artery Valley.

    Shield of the Obedient Servant is a semi-regular drop of the Obediency Enforcer in Eastern Fouls Plains.

    5.5.4. Meta Physicist Buffs

    Teachings - Each of these programs adds 25 to one of your nano skills (List)
    Masteries - Adds 50 to each nano skill (List)
    Infuse with Knowledge - Adds 90 to each nano skill (List)
    Mocham's Gift - Adds 140 to each nano skill (List)

    5.5.5. Trader Buffs

    Skill Wranglers - There are a lot of these buffs so a general description will have to do. Each version adds a certain amount to all nano skills and all weapon skills. (List)
    Apprentice - Each of these programs adds 40 to one of your trade skills (List)
    Journeyman - Adds 80 to each trade skill (List)
    Maestro - Adds 125 to each trade skill (List)

    5.6. Items

    These are details of some items that add to "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" which we can use to help us summon our bots.

    Thanks to Martinn for the majority of this list

    5.7. Bots, Buffs and Over-equipping (OE)

    This applies to weapons as well, but my primary concern here is to explain how it applies to our pets.

    5.7.1. What are Over-Equipping Rules?

    These rules were introduced several patches ago in an attempt to combat the growing number of characters using items and pets substantially over their skill levels.

    For weapons and armour it reduces the effectiveness in increments of 25%.

    OE does not apply to NCU memory, Belts, Implants, HUD items or Util items.

    For pets it simply makes them stop responding entirely and they enter Behind mode (will follow you around but not respond to other commands).

    5.7.2. "What has that got to do with me?"

    In effect this gives us two things to consider whenever we make a bot or put on a piece of armour. The first being how we get all that extra skill in the first place, the second is how much do we have to maintain in order to continue using it.

    Lets use the Slayerdroid Guardian as an example. This requires 874 "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" to cast and activate the shell.

    Now before the OE rules were introduced that meant you could get Mochams and a 132 Wrangle and make that bot at a very early level and continue using it until you logged off even if those buffs ran out.

    What OE rules changed was that you need to be able to maintain 700 MC and TS to continually use the bot.

    With a weapon instead of a pet the weapon would become 75% effective at the first OE level. If your skills were even lower, then the gun would drop to 50% effective.

    5.7.3. Doing the Maths

    You can figure out exactly how much skill you need to use something, or the highest you can possibly use without being effected with these two little formulea.

    Amount of Skill Required to Control = Amount of skill to make or wear * 0.8 (Round up result to the nearest whole number)

    Maximum amount within OE = Current Skill * 1.25 (Round down result to the nearest whole number)

    5.7.4. "There must be an easier way?!"

    Fortunately for us there is, a player made bot known as Helpbot can help you out with what you can and can't use.

    Simply send helpbot a tell and ask him:

    /tell helpbot OE <skill>

    Enter your skill and he'll show you the result of both of the formula I have above.

    5.7.5. Bugged Bots

    Unfortunately not all bots obey the rules, as they have been sabotaged while leaving the factory. List is incomplete I'll add them as I learn about them.
    • Lesser Automaton - Should require 20 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 27 MC and TS - Making this bot the holder of the coverted "Most Bugged" award and it gets a big "Do Not Use" sticker.
    • Lesser Gladiatorbot - Nano upload requirement is 258 MC and TS. Shell requirement is 261 MC and TS. Should require 207 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 217 - 220 MC and TS.
    • Inferior Gladiatorbot - Nano Upload requirement is 278 MC and TS. Shell requirement is 277 MC and TS.
    • Common Gladiatorbot - Nano Upload requirement is 317 MC and TS, cast requirement is 318 MC and TS. Should require 254 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 274 MC and TS.
    • Advanced Gladiatorbot - Should require 303 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is unknown (testing required).
    • Perfected Gladiatorbot - Should require 312 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 316 MC and TS.
    • Lesser Guardbot - Should require 352 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is unknown (testing required).
    • Inferior Guardbot - Should require 362 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is unknown (testing required).
    • Guardbot - Should require 405 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is unknown (415+ requires testing).
    • Perfected Guardbot - Should require 449 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is unknown (458+ requires testing).
    • Patchwork Warbot - Should require 493 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 514 MC and TS.
    • Lesser Warbot - Should require 507 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 510+ MC and TS (resting required).
    • Common Warbot - Should require 545 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is unknown (testing required).
    • Military-Grade Warbot - Should require 578 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 584 MC and TS.
    • Patchwork Warmachine - Should require 588 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is unknown (testing required).
    • Flawed Warmachine - Nano upload requirement is 751 MC and TS. Shell requirement is 753 MC and TS. Should require 601 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is 612 MC and TS.
    • Slayerdroid Protector - Should require 682 MC and TS to be within OE. Actual requirement is ~686 MC and TS.
    Last edited by Highorbit; Mar 22nd, 2004 at 14:34:25.
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  4. #4
    6. Armour Choices

    Armour is a tricky subject, it tends to be more dependant on your breed than on your profession.

    This section is designed to show you what is available and where you can get it. Again this is not a list of all armour types possible, just a list of the more popular ones.

    Ultimately the armour choice depends very much on you, an army of clones is definately not what we want to achieve. Look at the abilties you've raised, and compare those with the list below, then choose the armour you think suits you.

    In each case below the primary requirement (highest) is the first. I.E. Stamina & Strength requires more Stamina than Strength.

    Stamina & Strength Armour
    • OrganicArmor (QL Range: 35 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Good AC, but looks terrible!
    • Graft Armor (QL Range: ?? - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Good AC, but looks terrible!
    • CAS Symbiotic Armor (QL Range: 35 - 200) - Player made. Looks good. Nice AC & Modifiers. Expensive.
    • Sekutek Chilled Plasteel Armor (QL Range: 1 - 175) - Boss loot only armour. Has a lot of ability modifiers (Agility, Strength, Intelligence), but poor AC.

    Intelligence & Psychic Armour
    • Nano Armor (QL Range: 75 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Easy to get.
    • Bau Cyber Armor (QL Range: 30 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Harder to get than Nano.
    • Waitt Cyber Armor (QL Range: 50 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot. Harder to get than Nano.

    Psychic & Stamina Armour

    Intelligence & Stamina Armour
    • Bronto Hide Armor (QL Range: 1 - 200) - Player made from Bronto Hide (which is a random drop item).

    Agility & Strength Armour

    Agility & Stamina Armour

    Sense & Agility Armour
    • Nova Dillon Armor (QL Range: 1 - 150) - Boss loot only armour. Has a lot of ability modifiers (All abilities), but poor AC.
    • Steel-Ribbed Armour (QL Range: 1 - 200) - Mission Reward / Loot

    7. Weapon Choices

    As Engineers we get a quite few weapon choices, this section covers many of the options available to us.

    7.1. Weapon Skill Perks

    The following Perk lines could be useful when deciding on a weapon.
    • Pistol Mastery - Perk levels 1 - 8. Adds 115 Pistol, 13 Fling and 33 Damage in total.
    • Demolitions - Perk levels 1 - 10. Adds 200 Grenade in total.
    • Shotgun Mastery - Perk levels 1 - 10. Adds 200 Shotgun and 80 Damage in total.

    7.2. Weapons for Fighting with

    7.2.1. Pistol Based Weapons

    A common choice for those of us that deal with Trade Skills, or want to deal with Trade Skills. There are a large amount of pistols used for buffing skills, having access to those can be very useful.
    • The Original Electronicum - A reasonable choice for a low to medium level Engineer. Available from the Backyard vendor in Jobe up to QL50. After that boss loot only.
    • Customized IMI Desert Reet - Drops from the Lab Director in the Omni Mine (Biomare Dungeon).
    • Eyemutant Orb Lasers - Low multi requirement, High minimum damage. Has to be made from the Eyemutant Eye if you can find one. Highest currently found is ~QL100.
    • Pain of Patricia - Level 175+ weapon that drops from Patricia at the Ace camp. Very good for Rubi Ka, but bad against Shadowlands Mobs.
    • Upgraded Solar-Powered Pistols - This one requires a lot of special items to get. You can find a guide for making the pistol here.
    • Flux Pistol - With exceptional minimum damage this weapon is ideal for use in Shadowlands. Drops from sided mobs at the temples in Shadowlands. For higher levels works very well when weilded alongside the Master Engineer Pistol.

    7.2.2. Grenade Based Weapons

    These are impressive weapons, the ones that make your team mates stop and wonder what on earth is going on. A popular choice for Engineers more inclined to fighting.
    • MTI Pocket Launcher - A low level weapon, only available up to QL50.
    • OT 12 Grenade Launcher - For those of us who like weapons that really do make a lot of noise this is an excellent choice. However, it is also boss loot only. Heavy damage, but slow.
    • Ballistic Launcher Pistol - Good minimum damage and uses a combination of Grenade and Pistol skills making use of our Extreme Predjudice buff. Generally drops from sided mobs in the Temples in Shadowlands.
    • OT Hurler - This weapon drops from outdoor bosses on Rubi Ka only. Quite rare, but reasonable damage on Rubi Ka. The low minimum damage makes this weapon less useful for Shadowlands.

    7.2.3. Shotgun Based Weapons

    Not as much of a common choice, but these weapons tend to be easy to get hold of.
    • Vektor ND Shotguns - These weapons are easy to get at lower levels and require only a single skill, which makes them a good choice for any new starter.
    • Home Defender - As with the Vektor, easy to get at lower levels and only require a single skill. These weapons can also be dual weilded if you choose.

    7.2.4. Martial Arts

    Even easier to get than the Shotguns above, MA can be a great choice for anyone just starting out alongside a substantial MA skill buff at higher levels.
    • Martial Arts - With the use of the linked nano Martial Arts can be a reasonable choice for a high level engineer. Martial Arts on it's own is also a very good option for a low level engineer since it doesn't conflict in any implant set up, and means you don't have to buy or find weapons.

    7.3. Weapons for Improving your skills

    None of the weapons in this section are here because of their damage. They all have one purpose: To help you get a bigger and better robot to hit things with.
    Last edited by Highorbit2; Jan 19th, 2006 at 13:12:09.
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  5. #5
    7.4. Other skills

    Inits (Initiatives) control the speed of attack and the speed of recharge for all standard weapons, so increasing Ranged Init increases ranged weapon fire rate, Melee Init for melee weapons (clubs, bats, swords) and Physical Init for barehanded attacks and some bows.

    Nano Init effects Nano cast time is a similar way, however it does not change the recharge time in any way.

    Dodge-Ranged improves your chances of avoiding hits by ranged weapons, it also reduces the chance of a critical hit.

    Evade Close Combat as above but for close combat attacks such as Melee weapons and Martial arts.

    Duck Explosions is generally required to avoid damage from shotguns and grenade launchers, particularly good if you're having trouble with trader mobs in missions.

    If you never raise evades at all every mob that hits you will critical, so it's highly advisable to get all of them up to around twice the mobs level. So for Rubi Ka 400 in evades against a level 200 mob will generally save you from being hit by a critical every time.

    Shadowlands requires higher evades than Rubi Ka since the mobs hit a lot harder. If you find yourself getting in trouble with Shadowlands mobs you might want to consider raising the evades higher.

    It's well worth noting that Add All Def in your implant set (Level 100+ only) and high evades increase the effectiveness of our Area Blind aura.


    Multi Ranged and Multi Melee are both the ability to hold and use two weapons as once. When you wear a ranged weapon the lowest of the two Multi requiremensts is used to figure out if you can wear it - both of these skills are very very expensive for us so normally left until high levels.

    8. Trimmers & Android NCU Upgrades

    This section covers the items you can use on your robot to enhance it's performance. Trimmers can be used as many times as you need and won't disapear on use. NCU Upgrades are single use only.

    8.1. Permanent Effect Trimmers

    When used these trimmers have a permenent effect on the robot, so you only need to use them once per bot.

    8.1.1. Attack Speed Trimmer

    This line of trimmers can be bought from general stores (remember that the stock in General Stores is random, so you might have to check a few times to find the highest Quality). The maximum Quality is 100 which represents either full defense or full offense.
    • Positive Trimmers - These increase the attack speed but decrease the bots ability to evade.
    • Negative Trimmers - These decrease the attack speed but increase the bots ability to evade.

    This range of trimmers basically alters the position of your pets Aggressive-Defensive slider. The effect is much the same as altering your own, at full offense the bot hits faster but has less effective evades so gets hit more.

    The majority of our bots are more than capable of taking a little punishment though so we tend to favour the Positive Trimmers over the Negative ones.

    8.1.2. Taunting Trimmer

    This trimmer is made using components that can be easily bought in the shops. The Quality ranges from 30 to 200 and will require Mech Eng and a small amount of Chemistry to build.

    The components needed are:

    Which will give you:

    This trimmer adds a relatively small taunt value to your pets hits. In effect each hit making the mob more angry at the robot. Used in conjunction with Trimmer - Positive Aggressive-Defensive this can make the pet very good at holding the mobs attention.

    8.2. Temporary Effect Trimmers

    These trimmers have a time limited effect on your robot. They aren't as important as the two trimmers mentioned above, but can be useful sometimes. Each can only be used once every 5 minutes. Each of the trimmers gives a minor skill increase to the skill they lock (for example at QL200 3 to Electrical Engineering).
    • Trimmer - Divert Energy to Avoidance - Increases your bots Evades at the expense of it's Maximum Health. The trimmer is currently bugged and increases Poison AC instead of Duck Explosions. It can be very useful for PVP as the damage the bot takes when you use it will break calms. Locks Electrical Engineering for 5 minutes.
    • Trimmer - Divert Energy to Defense - Increases the bots Armour Class at the expense of it's Attack Rating. Locks Mechanical Engineering.
    • Trimmer - Divert Energy to Hitpoints - Increases the bots Maximum Health at the expense of it's Defensive Ability. Locks Electrical Engineering for 5 minutes.
    • Trimmer - Divert Energy to Offense - Increases the bots Attack Rating at the expense of Armour Class. Locks Mechanical Engineering for 5 minutes.

    8.3. NCU Upgrades

    Android NCU Upgrades provide additional NCU space for your bot, 110 more NCU at QL200. These do not come without a price though, each upgrade lowers the Armour on your bot (400 AC with a QL200 upgrade).

    For the most part these NCU Upgrades are unnecessary as the bots generally have enough room for you to run a reflect shield, damage shield, AC buff and an Attack Rating buff. However you may want a keep a few handy if you really need them, especially since they drop fairly regularly in missions.

    The lower Quality NCU upgrades tend to be more useful than the higher level ones as you're unlikely to need 110 more NCU on a robot.

    9. Implants

    First of all, implants are essential to your character, all the Nano Programs and weapons in the game assume you have them to a greater or lesser extent.

    A good implant set can make the difference between you being very happy with your character or having problems with your character.

    Throughout this section I'm going to try to avoid stating that you must implant certain things wherever possible. However, some statements like that are inevitable.

    9.1. Profession Specific Pre-made Implants

    You can buy profession specific implants for each profession up to quality level 100 from the general stores.

    These implants are far from what most of us consider perfect, but they can save you the time and money building your own if you really don't want to until later on.

    It's also worth checking the booths of other professions as sometimes you can make a better set by combining aspects of different professions.

    Please take care if you do use these implants, especially if you're a Nanomage character. The implant set I have suggested below contains heavily implanted Life because as Engineers we don't have all that much, and as mentioned at the beginning out of all breeds Nanomage has the least life.

    This is particularly important if you open a chest with a bomb in it. If you don't implant life and are Nanomage you will most likely be killed by any such bomb.

    Eventually of course you'll have to build your own.

    9.2. Implant Design

    Designing implants is one of the most complex parts of the game and takes a long time to get used to, but if you have doubts or are unsure then just ask.

    The first thing you should do when you are considering making your own implants is download Nano Nanny. This small program will really help you out as the number of combinations possible is very very large.

    You should consider which skills you need to increase, of course there will be many conflicts within the implants if you wanted to increase everything so you have to be a little selective.

    For each implant there are 3 slots, Shining, Bright and Faded. Each of these slots provides a different amount of skill increase, Shining provides the most, Faded the least.

    So lets think about which skills are important to us as Engineers and whether or not we'd like to implant them.

    Essential Skills to implant

    Matter Creation - Required to make your bot
    Time and Space - Required to make your bot

    Highly Recommended

    Intelligence - Effects all nano skills
    Matter Metamorphesis - Required for engineer shields
    Max Health - Increases your Hit Points, keeps you alive longer.

    Recommended

    Bio Metamorphesis - Required to heal your bot
    Weapon Skill - Depends on which weapon you choose, but I would suggest implanting the skills above carry higher priority.
    Run Speed - Being able to move faster is just useful, you should have spaces to implant this without conflicting.

    Choices

    Sensory Improvement - I personally don't recommend implanting this because it conflicts with skills I consider more important like Intelligence.
    Psycological Modification - As above.

    As I've said, "Matter Creation" and "Time and Space" are both essential skills, however those use the same spots in the implant set so you have to balance the skills. So as an example you would install Shining "Matter Creation" and Bright and Faded "Time and Space" which balances the increase of those skills.

    It's worth remembering that if all implants are of equal quality level, then:

    Increase from shining = Increase from Bright + Increase from Faded

    Experiment in Nano Nanny, it's free and once you learn the process it makes designing implants for you, or any of your other characters much easier.

    Above everything else I want you to remember that anything I write here isn't set in stone and if you disagree then try your set up.

    9.3. Common Issues

    Ability Requirement on Implants - It's possible to alter the ability requirement on an implant a certain amount. You can see this change with the following example:

    In Nano Nanny next to head implant select the following clusters.

    Shining Time and Space
    Bright Ranged Init
    Faded Sense

    Then build the implant (a function of Nano Nanny to simulate an implant build) at any quality level. Checking the results will reveal it requires Intelligence.

    Repeat this process but this time only with these clusters:

    Shining Time and Space
    Faded Sense

    This time the resulting implant requires Agility.

    Max HP or Body Development? - In general the increase in HP provided by implanting HP directly is greater. There is an exception to this though. The Atrox breed gets more HP per point of Body Development than any of the other breeds, which makes implanting Body Development more beneficial for your character.
    Last edited by Highorbit2; Jan 19th, 2006 at 13:11:44.
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  6. #6
    9.4. Sample Implant Design

    This Implant set is purely generic and has no weapon skills implanted (except where the ability requirement needed changing), those depend on your weapon choice and the set will need altering in accordance with that.

    The set itself will require you to have Agility and Stamina raised to wear it, although alterations could be made to change those requirements.

    Head - Shining: Time & Space, Bright: (empty), Faded: Sense
    Chest - Shining: Max Health, Bright: Matter Met, Faded: Strength
    Ear - Shining: (empty), Bright: Concealment, Faded: Intelligence
    Eye - Shining: Aimed Shot, Bright: Intelligence, Faded: Matter Creation
    Left Arm - Shining: (empty), Bright: Strength, Faded: Matter Met
    Right Arm - Shining: Strength, Bright: Chem AC, Faded: Mech Eng
    Left Wrist - Shining: (empty), Bright: Run Speed, Faded: Nano Resist
    Right Wrist - Shining: Run Speed, Bright: Nano Resist, Faded: Fling Shot
    Leg - Shining: Agility, Bright: Stamina, Faded: Max Health
    Left Hand - Shining: (empty), Bright: Trap Disarm, Faded: First Aid
    Right Hand - Shining: Trap Disarm, Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
    Waist - Shining: Fire AC, Bright: Max Health, Faded: Stamina
    Feet - Shining: Evade, Bright: Agility, Faded: Duck

    10. Soloing & Teaming

    This is where it all comes together, in this section I'm going to give a few pointers and suggestions to make everything that we've done up to now work.

    At this point I will assume that anyone reading this section is new to the game and operating with the normal engineer set up. So some of this section may not be relevant.

    10.1. Terms & Concepts

    Before I go ahead and start suggesting things to try I'll just quickly run through some of the terms and concepts we'll be going through.
    • Mobs - Short for Mobiles, can be any creature in the game not controlled by a player.
    • Hate List - A mobs list of enemies in "Must Die!" order.
    • Aggro Slider - The Agg / Def Slider in the stats window.
    • Line of Sight (LOS) - Self explanetory
    • Calms - A nano program that stops a mob fighting and makes it unable to attack unless attacked first. (Orange effect around the target)
    • Mez - Short for Mesmerize, same as calm.
    • Root - A nano program used to fix a mob to the spot, this won't effect its combat abilities. (Light Blue effect around the target)
    • Snare - A nano program used to reduce the run speed of a mob. (Green effect around the target)
    • Blind - A nano program that reduces the attack rating of the target (Black Cloud effect around the head of the target)
    • Tank - The primary damage taker in any situation, a successful tank must be able to hold the mobs attention.
    • Puller - Person responsible for drawing mobs towards a team, or for the splitting of groups of mobs into bit sized chunks.
    • Taunt - A device, nano program or component of a nano program that increases mob hate towards the user.

    10.2. Pets in Combat

    Our robots are, in effect, controlled mobs. This means they are subject to many of the rules and behavioural patterns that govern regular mobs.

    So like a mob your pet will have a Hate List.

    Mobs or Players might be added to the Hate List because:
    • Old Command - You told your bot to attack a mob by mistake or changed your mind.
    • Mob / Player Attacks Bot - Something or someone attacked your bot.
    • Mob / Player Attacks You - Something or someone attacked you.

    Which ever state the bot is in it will build a hate list, even if the bot is standing there in Wait mode it will add attackers to its list.

    If the bot is in Guard mode it will immediately engage the first attacker, in a team situation that's any mob that attacks any member of the team. If in Attack mode it will engage the attacker as soon as it's current target is finished.

    In any other mode it will not act on this list until you give it a command. Then, depending on the command, it will either start to work through it or disregard it entirely.

    If you set your bot to attack mode it will then engage the target you select, followed by each mob on the Hate List.

    You can clear a Hate List at any time by issuing the command "/pet wait".

    The following example should hopefully illustrate this:

    You're in a team consisting of yourself, a Crat, a Doctor and an Enforcer.

    We'll assume that the team is built up of bad and good players. No sterotypes intended, just as examples. This is a very common situation.

    Ahead of you is a big room with 2 mobs in it, and 11 mobs surrounding it all in their little rooms.

    The Enforcer isn't so bright, he prefers the head on method of rushing into a room and hitting things. He has no regard at all for the mobs that are watching his little display, and indeed little regard for the wellfare of the rest of the team.

    He firmly believes that the crat should calm them all and the doc should heal him. If they don't then the fault lies entirely with them.

    Fortunately for the Enforcer both the Doc and the Crat are very good if a little annoyed at the play style of your Enforcer teammate.

    So the fight commences, the Enforcer engages the first mob, you send your bot to attack it. Everything is going fine.

    Then in the age old fashion the cry "ADD!" rings out as 4 of the mobs from surrounding rooms attack a mixture of you, your bot, the Enforcer and the doc. Thankfully the crat manages to swiftly calm these.

    During this your bot has started to build a Hate List. The first being the mob it's currently fighting, it won't switch until that mob is dead. It's also added onto it's hate list all the mobs that just joined the fight and are now calmed.

    The fight ends, everyone is in a bad way and needs to recharge for a moment, but your bot has just moved right onto the next target!

    Rewind...

    You see the adds, wait until they're calmed, then you issue the Wait command to your bot. Then immediately after the attack command to the current target that everyone is fighting.

    You just cleared your bots Hate List, it will finish it's current target and enter Guard mode until other commands are issued.

    The fight ends and everyone recharges. Your bot waits patiently for you to issue another command. While the mobs stand around looking bored.

    Controlling your bot effectively is very important, you generally cannot let it go on an uncontrolled rampage, it'll upset people in a team and may make soloing hard work.

    10.3. Solo Play

    Engineers are a good profession for this, the bots ability to tank make us able to solo missions well above our level. In effect it is essential that the Engineer and the Bot behave as a small team.

    Every mob in the game uses Hate Lists to determine who should be attacked. The idea is to always be lower down on this list than the bot.

    Reasons you might move up this list include:
    • Damage - If you do more damage than your bot or team members then you might find the mob starts to hit you instead. Unless you want this to happen adjust your "Aggro Slider" so your defenses are favoured over your attacks.
    • Healing - Healing nano programs carry an indirect taunt value, healing a target near the mob, specifically a target the mob is attacking will move you up the "Hate List".
    • First Seen - If the mob sees you before anything else you will automatically be at the top of the "Hate List".

    This does not mean that mobs will never randomly attack you, so a certain amount of luck and good judgement is involved.

    Of course when we do this we have to be careful. At very low levels the bot won't be able to taunt the mobs, or hold the mobs attention very well on its own. In this situation you can use Line of Sight (LoS) to your advantage.

    This especially applies when healing. If you remain out of Line of Sight (of the mob) and heal the bot it's unlikely that the mob will switch its attention to you.

    This is why we advise the use of Trimmers, as well as anything you can do to make the bot hit harder or annoy the mob more.

    A Damage Shield for example won't do very much extra damage, nor will it really shield you or the bot from much. But casting it on your bot will mean the mob is being annoyed slightly more each time it hits.

    One of the hardest things to do is learning to seperate mobs. If two mobs are in the same room attacking one will immediately catch the attention of the other.

    The prefered method to deal with this situation is by pulling one mob into another room. You do this by waiting in the mobs room until it flashes up an attacked by message. At which point you have to get to the first room as fast as you can!

    Pulling with a reflect or a damage shield running is much harder, the only way to pull a single mob in that instance is by not letting the mob hit you at all. If the mob you're pulling takes any damage then it will be noticed by the second mob and the effort is wasted.

    This is a risk, if your bot (or your team members later on) can't pull the aggro from you or heal you then it might be an idea to use the mission door.

    As you level and your skills increase you may want to get the Blind line. Engineer blinds are the most powerful in the game, they reduce the attack rating of the mob to such an extent that they can be incapable of hitting you. All our blinds are in the form of a 20 second area pulse which effects all hostile targets in the area.

    However, if the mob takes even a single point of damage the blind will be broken and the mob back up to full power. Our blinds are also very short range and contain a taunt, so use with care.

    Along with these is a Snare line that pulses out from the bot (every 30 seconds). The snare contains a taunt which improves chances of the mob attacking the bot.

    10.4. Team Play

    Acting as part of a team can be very hard work at times, some teams are better than others.

    As a new player to this game you'll discover many low level characters that are refered to as "Twinks". These characters are normally alternates of higher level characters which have been improved using the resources of that higher level player. Whether that is by getting the best possible implants in, the best possible armour on or any other method of making a character better than average.

    A team of twinks isn't necessarily a good team though, any team needs to be able to work together and communicate. Approaching any scenario with a little care will make the play experience better.

    This is where we come onto team roles.

    Some teams won't bother and will just run through the mission killing everything, looting everything and just hoping that no one dies in the process.

    Other teams will use strategies, which in theory at least, allow them to contend with greater challenges than the first type.

    Some professions are better suited to certain jobs than others.

    Traditionally Enforcers and Soldiers are tank professions, they have taunts and are equipped to take a great deal of damage.

    Fixers can also tank sometimes, but because of their speed they can make very very good pullers.

    If a team is willing to use these kinds of methods then they can very quickly and efficiently clear a mission full of creatures much higher level than themselves.

    Be a little more careful in teams with some of our programs. The snare program the bot has can attract adds and break calms.

    The Blind program and other offensive auras we have can sometimes (not all the time) break calms.

    10.5. Offensive and Defensive Auras

    One final thing I want to cover in this section is a bit more of a detailed description of our defensive and offensive auras.

    These auras have two components, the main component (server) runs in your own NCU, this will pulse out every 20 seconds or so the other half of the program (client). The client is the important bit since that's the one that provides the modifiers. You will end up with server and client running in your NCU when you run it, all other members will only have the client side.

    This list contains all our defensive auras, they range in effect from AC auras to Damage increasing auras. You'll only be able to run one at a time.

    Which you use depends on the situation really, the reflect and damage shield auras are only useful if members of the team are using those kinds of shield. The AC aura is one of the most useful in my opinion.

    Damage buff auras aren't used much but you might want to consider them, the highest adds 25 extra damage for a cost of 2 NCU.

    Offensive auras can be very useful. We're the only profession that can debuff certain types of shields, and we possess the most powerful blinds in the game.

    This list contains all our offensive auras. Going to look at these more closely than the defensive auras.

    Please note that all our Offensive auras carry a chance to break calms or draw in extra mobs to the fight so use them with care.

    10.5.1. Damage Shield Debuff

    This line of auras reduces the damage you take from any damage shield. There are 5 nanos in this line.

    I find these most useful when facing boss mobs with obscene damage shields. It does seem to have some problems landing on occasion, but boss mobs have pretty obscene nano resist.

    However, teams can be very grateful when the 150 damage they've been taking per hit is substantially reduced.

    Disruptive Field Negator -4 Damage
    Disruptive Shielding Negator -14 Damage
    Disruptive Barrier Negator -28 Damage
    Disruptive Retaliatory Negator -44 Damage
    Disruptive Retributive Negator -61 Damage

    10.5.2. Reflect Shield Debuff

    This line reduces the effectiveness of reflect shields, it reduces the percentage of damage reflected, which makes it very powerful against all reflect shield users.

    This includes the Soldier program Total Mirror Shield and the NT program Nullity Sphere.

    Disruptive Field Harmonics -15%
    Disruptive Cocoon Harmonics -22%
    Disruptive Phase Harmonics -36%
    Null Space Disruptor -48%
    Last edited by Highorbit2; Jan 19th, 2006 at 13:10:44.
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  7. #7
    10.5.3. Blind (Add All Off Debuff)

    Finally the most powerful of our lines. This one has a negative Add All Off modifier. Add All Off directly effects Attack Rating. Attack Rating this is the number used to figure out whether something hits, misses or criticals. The blinds simply reduce the Attack Rating value by a very large amount.

    The blinds can be used to completely shut down a mob making it unable to hit you, this doesn't stop it fighting, just makes it as dangerous as a common backyard leet.

    In effect this line provides us with some basic crowd control, it's not as effective as a calm, but it does give us an option in a difficult situation.

    They are short range and will break on a single point of damage, or if another offensive program lands on the target.

    Disruptive Photon Deflector -370
    Disruptive Photon Absorber -640
    Disruptive Photon Devourer -890
    Disruptive Photon Annihilator -1095
    Disruptive Void Projector -1210


    11. Trade Skills

    11.1. Introduction to Trade Skills

    This is probably one of your biggest choices. Engineers really excel in this field, but it's not an easy path. For a start there's a lot to learn, every trade skill process has different rules. But most importantly this will absorb all of your free IP all the way until well into Title Level 6.

    As a result of the IP sink involved in trade skills it's next to impossible to keep more than a couple of these up before level 125.

    You should also remember that there is no such thing as a Trade skill only engineer, you have a choice of pure Combat Engineer or a Hybrid Trade skill / Combat skill Engineer. This is because you can't level off trade skills, the only way to level is through combat.

    A comprehensive list of items for trade skills has already been created and compiled by Caddock which can be found here.

    11.2. Trade Skill Processes

    Trade skill abreviations:

    Mechanical Engineering - ME
    Electrical Engineering - EE
    Quatum Field Tech - QFT
    Weapon Smithing - WS
    Pharma Tech - PT
    Nano Programming - NP
    Computer Literacy - CL
    Psychology - Psychol
    Chemistry - Chem
    Breaking & Entering - B&E
    Quality Level - QL

    11.3. Charging for Trade Skills

    Whether you use them or not Elbo has produced a price list for all trade skill processes should you need a guide about what to charge people if you wish to.

    11.4. Special Tools

    There are some items in the game that can only be found in a limited number of places. Most of these aren't a problem as you can always get them later on. However, 5 of these items can only be found easily in Missions at relatively low level.
    • Robot Instruction Discs - These three can only be found as mission loot at the same levels as the discs.
    • Shape Armour - These two can only be found as boss loot (indoor or outdoor) on approximately level 60 bosses.

    11.5. Maximum Skills for each Breed

    If you're making a character specifically for Trade skills then your Breed choice is very important.

    Below are the maximum, unaugmented trade skills for each Breed. Each one assumes you're level 200 and have maxed all abilities.

    Nanomage
    • Mechanical Engineering - 721
    • Electrical Engineering - 721
    • Quantum FT - 727
    • Weapon Smithing - 721
    • Nano Programming - 727
    • Compter Literacy - 727
    • Chemistry - 719
    • Pharma Tech - 665
    • Psychology - 663
    • Tutoring - 726

    Opifex
    • Mechanical Engineering - 725
    • Electrical Engineering - 722
    • Quantum FT - 713
    • Weapon Smithing - 715
    • Nano Programming - 715
    • Compter Literacy - 715
    • Chemistry - 717
    • Pharma Tech - 669
    • Psychology - 661
    • Tutoring - 717

    Solitus
    • Mechanical Engineering - 719
    • Electrical Engineering - 719
    • Quantum FT - 719
    • Weapon Smithing - 718
    • Nano Programming - 719
    • Compter Literacy - 719
    • Chemistry - 719
    • Pharma Tech - 659
    • Psychology - 659
    • Tutoring - 719

    Atrox
    • Mechanical Engineering - 709
    • Electrical Engineering - 711
    • Quantum FT - 699
    • Weapon Smithing - 713
    • Nano Programming - 699
    • Compter Literacy - 699
    • Chemistry - 713
    • Pharma Tech - 643
    • Psychology - 639
    • Tutoring - 699
    Last edited by Highorbit2; Jan 19th, 2006 at 13:09:37.
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  8. #8
    11.6. Tutoring and Why It's Important

    Tutoring is required to be able to use Tutoring Devices, these are items in the game that allow you to termporarily increase one of your own trade skills.

    The devices start at Quality Level 1 and go all the way up to 200. Providing an increase of up to 50 points.

    That is an increase of 0.25 skill per quality level, but we don't work in bits of numbers, only full numbers. So QL1-7 provide a skill increase of 1 point, QL8 - 12 an increase of 2 points, up until the increase of 50 points with a QL200 device.

    Tutoring is absolutely essential for many high level trade skills, but it takes a long time to make it really useful. Especially since the highest quality devices need 1000 tutoring to use.

    So while you might want tutoring eventually, it's probably little use to you before level 150.

    11.7. Where to find out more

    Tir School of Engineering - An excellent site run by Lyricia.
    Anarchy Arcanum - Another useful site which details trade skills and quests amoung other things.
    Engineer Forum - Don't forget here! Many of us have been doing trade skills a long time now so always ask on the forum itself if you need to.

    12. Player Vs Player

    PVP is an important part of the game and no guide would be complete without looking at this subject. By its very nature PVP is a fairly advanced subject, and any success requires a fairly broad knowledge of the game.

    Lower level PVP is currently heavily dominated by twinks (Characters made using the resources and knowledge of a higher level character), which makes it difficult for new players to get into.

    This section of the guide was written in conjunction, and with the help of the rest of the members of this forum since my knowledge of PVP as an Engineer isn't so good... so don't ask me about it in game

    12.1. Combat Specialist or Trade-skill Specialist

    This is one of the first things that effects your ability to fight other players. Trade skills as I've mentioned earlier are a massive drain on IP, to the extent where Combat related skills have to be neglected to a certain extent.

    So first of all, if you want to be really good at fighting then trade skills have to become secondary.

    12.2. Skills

    For any combat based profession that is required to take damage Evasion skills are essential. This includes Evade Close Combat, Dodge Ranged, Duck Explosions, Nano Resist and Run Speed. You will be taking damage in PVP, no human fighter will target your bot over you, other than to root, scare, charm or calm the robot.

    In addition to these you need to select a good weapon and make sure you fully utilise any advantages you have over other professions.

    For your weapon choice you should look at maxing all the skills associated with using the weapon, the Initiative type for that weapon.

    Nano Init would also allow you to instantly cast the root / snare breaker on the pet and the offensive auras.

    Maxing out the skills associated with the specials on weapons will decrease the recharge time of that special attack, the fastest this will become is once every 10 seconds.

    12.3. Weapon Choices

    Note this is not a definative guide by any extent, I leave the choices to you, I just wanted to present you with some options.
    The choices for PVP combat differ as you level. Some weapons to consider at lower levels might be:
    • Manex Catastrophe - Heavy burst damage, generally a slow weapon. No longer drops in game.
    • X-3 Rifle / Caterwaul Rifle - Rifle and Aimed shot are very popular in PVP. Although an up and coming change to how Aimed Shot works in PVP might make this less useful.

    At higher levels:
    • Pain of Patricia - A level 175+ pistol as mentioned earlier. A very respectable choice. Improves even more if you implant Pistol further as opposed to the Nano skills used to summon your bot.
    • Martial Arts - Fast but highly crit dependant. Utilises slayerform and the damage is relatively good.

    In addition to your weapon choice a scope should always be considered:
    • TIM scope - This is available from TIM in the Foreman's dungeon. Basically a scope to increase Ranged Init, with only a small crit bonus. Very useful for slower but heavy damage weapons like the Manex.
    • Vision Enhancer - This and the next scope reduce initiatives as a price for gaining a critical bonus.
    • Low Light Targetting Scope - This particular scope doesn't drop anymore and can only be bought from players. As a result it's hard to obtain and very expensive.

    12.4. Ranged or Close Combat?

    In general I believe Ranged Combat styles to be better for PVP as an Engineer. It allows you the chance to avoid damage by simply not being close enough to your opponent.

    Unlike our Close Combat (Martial Arts) combat style a Root program isn't likely to be the end of the fight for you.

    12.5. Nanos
    • Special Blocking shields - Each one of these programs blocks a certain amount of special attacks dealt against you. These include Burst, Full Auto, Dimach, Brawl, Aimed Shot etc. Essential for any fight.
    • Blind Auras - Very powerful auras, but each breaks very easily.
    • Reflect / Damage shield debuff auras - Works against anything from Nullity Sphere to Corruscating Screen.
    • AC, Reflect & Weapon auras - These add additional reflect damage. More damage reflected back each time they hit you. More AC for you. More damage.
    • Snare aura - This one runs on the bot, reducing your opponents run speed drastically to stop them escaping the claws of your bot.
    • Root protection programs - Give your bot a resistance to root and snare programs, however short duration.
    • Root Breakers - Break the roots and Snares and enable your bot to run free, obliterating everything in it's path.

    12.6. Tactics

    Tactics are something you have to develop for yourself, it takes lots of practice and a great deal of game knowledge to be good at PVP.

    "No battle plan, no matter how perfect survives contact with the enemy"

    Remember that you don't have to fight, and there's no point in agreeing to a duel you have no hope at all in winning, the most fun duels are those that are close, even if you lose.

    Learn about the other professions, their strengths and their weaknesses.

    "Trimmer - Divert Energy to Avoidance" can be used to break calms cast against your pet as it does damage to the bot.

    It is highly recommended that you obtain at least 2 root grafts. These are time locked and each will only be usable every 15 or 30 minutes or so at QL200.

    For mass PVP our Reflect booster and Damage shield booster Sympathetic Shields can cause a lot of pain to anyone using AoE weapons against you and your friends.

    Assume an NT casts an Area Nuke. If you were standing in a group of 10 people, everyone with the highest soldier reflect shield (which gives back 46 damage per person to an attacker); adding on Sympathetic Reactive Cocoon would have the effect of increasing the damage the NT takes from 460 to 1070 in return for his nuke - without anyone having to fire off a single shot.

    12.7. Things to watch out for
    • Bureaucrats can charm and calm your robot.
    • Traders can calm and root pets, but generally won't charm because they wouldn't last long.
    • NTs can root and calm pets

    If you're fighting a player filling their NCU with junk programs in order to prevent them running buffs is considered an exploit.

    Overwriting Soldier Reflect shields and Adventurer or Enforcer Damage shields are also considered exploits.

    For clarification using flaws in the Game Mechanics to obtain unintended benefits is considered an exploit. I only list these here because they come up repeatedly on the forums. So if you have read this and you use it then you have been warned. If you would like clarification of these statements then please e-mail Exploits@anarchy-online.com

    With everything said PVP is supposed to be fun, if you don't enjoy it then you don't have to do it.

    13. Anything Else

    13.1. Making References & Tracking Damage

    If you find you do a lot of trade skill work a reference is really useful for compacting a lot of information into a small space so check out this for Ref Maker.

    You'll also find Damage Dumper on the same site, that program allows you to track the damage of you and anyone else you set it to. Useful if you're curious about how much damage you're doing compared to others.

    13.2. Where to find parts for the Engineer Pistol

    Most of this is taken from Lyricia's guide at the Tir School of Engineering

    13.2.1. Solar-Powered Pistol
    • Auto Targetting Computer -IIR 4 -Ultra- - Shop item from Ranged Weapon Components.
    • Basic Calculator - Shop item from the Bookstore
    • Jandawit Cleanup Cluster - Shop item from Ranged Weapon Components.
    • Irreparable River MV - Ql1 - 20 version of the River MV, can be found in shops sometimes, or as mission loot or reward.

    13.2.2. Solar-Powered Tinker Pistol
    • Jenson Personal Ore Extractor - Shop item in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Tools.
    • Screwdriver - Shop item from ??
    • Robotic Self-Preservation System - Random drop off robotic mobs. Above ~QL30 are NoDrop.
    • Notum Chip / Fragment - Random drop off monster / human mobs, occasional chest loot.

    13.2.3. Solar-Powered Mender Pistol
    • Technoscavenger Brain - Drops from Junk-bot and Buzzsaw Technoscavenger type robots. The area around the Trash King or Greater Tir County have these robot types.
    • Bio Analyzing Computer - Shop item from ??

    13.2.4. Solar-Powered Mechanic Pistol
    • Electrical Engineering Tutoring Device - These can be bought from the Bookstore in shops, or found as mission loot and rewards.
    • Disposabal Electrical Toolset - Drops from the Ratcatcher bot at 800 1800 Greater Tir County (18 hour spawn). Also a rare drop from Jack the Leg-Chopper clones in Varmint Woods, which are 20 minute placeholder type spawns.

    13.2.5. Solar-Powered Machinist Pistol
    • Field Quantum Physics All-Purpose Tool - Shop item from Mechanichal and Electrical Engineering Tools.
    • Hacker Tool - Shop item from Fixer Shop, normal shops or mission loot.
    • Notum Threaded Zodiacal Blanket - Drops from Medusa mobs.

    13.2.6. Solar-Powered Engineer Pistol
    • Experimental Nanobot Classifying Computer - Drops from Maurader-class Slayerdroids. These can be found in Broken Shores missions if you're clan.
    • Mist Filled Jar - Mission chest loot.

    13.2.7. Solar-Powered Master Engineer Pistol
    • Nano Programming Interface - Shop item from Tools.
    • Nano Formula Recompiler - Mission reward or Loot.
    • Lock Pick - Shop item from Tools.
    • NCU Memory - Mission reward or Loot.
    • Crystalized Medusa Queen Hippocampus - Common drop at Hollow Island from the 4th Brood Champion upwards.
    Last edited by Highorbit2; Jan 19th, 2006 at 13:08:06.
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  9. #9

    Thumbs up Nice work Highorbit

    Please root this. Looks like it took tons of time and is very detailed. Needs to be rooted for all engie noobs and some not so nooobs (me). Again grat work Highorbit
    Originally Posted by Katth
    Infusion is an idiot, nuff said.

    Originally Posted by SPOTY_DNW
    I have a dream....
    A dream of a patch which include no new content, but 75% of our very,very old bugs are fixed.


    Expert - Evilshot BS junkie
    Apprentice - Infusion99 Converted Tradeskiller
    Rookie - Solshot TL5 Twink
    Rookie - Infus TL3 Twink in progress

  10. #10

    Wink

    bah nevermind it already has been I just need to open my damn eyes.
    Originally Posted by Katth
    Infusion is an idiot, nuff said.

    Originally Posted by SPOTY_DNW
    I have a dream....
    A dream of a patch which include no new content, but 75% of our very,very old bugs are fixed.


    Expert - Evilshot BS junkie
    Apprentice - Infusion99 Converted Tradeskiller
    Rookie - Solshot TL5 Twink
    Rookie - Infus TL3 Twink in progress

  11. #11
    hehe this is Mark II

    The new improved one with more space for me!
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  12. #12
    Hmm, it's quite comprehensive.

    I suppose you could possibly add the convenient low level money making method that I liked to use: Converting monster parts to blood plasma. That's all I can think of, great job!
    Ernest "Zane0" Bunke - Equipment - Perks
    Obsidian Order
    Advisor

    Fix 200+ Engineer Slayers

  13. #13
    excelent post bumpzor for uze
    Q u o t e:
    ((OOC))

    Pardon me for hijacking the thread, here..

    But, Brion - if you don't want your mother to know you were up and on the computer at 3:29 in the morning - DON'T post on a forum that she reads.

    Busted.
    Grounded.

    From the WoW forums. best PWNAGE EVAH!!!

  14. #14
    Originally posted by Zane0
    Hmm, it's quite comprehensive.

    I suppose you could possibly add the convenient low level money making method that I liked to use: Converting monster parts to blood plasma. That's all I can think of, great job!
    Good point... added
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  15. #15
    Added an armour section as Section 6. Bumping all the rest up a number.

    Missing most of the minimum quality levels, so if anyone knows them please tell me.

    Also missing all the omni armour types since I know nothing at all about them

    Second update for today involved the addition of Section 10.

    10. Soloing & Teaming
    10.1. Terms & Concepts
    10.2. Solo Play
    10.3. Team Play
    Last edited by Highorbit; Jun 10th, 2003 at 17:14:15.
    Highorbit - Supreme Creator - Atlantean - 205 - Armour
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  16. #16
    You might want to add the Nova Dillon armor into the armor selection, which ranges from 1 to 150(?)ish. Gives bonuses to *all* stats, but has low AC. Boss-drop only.
    -Ward 'Kzak' Hereda, Clan L220, AL15 'Competent' Supreme Creator on Rubi-Ka 1. Equipment setup.

    Life is like a box of chocolates. Except, you know, the brown stuff in the box? That's not chocolate.

    Doing his part to make the world a more interesting place since December 2001.. but not any more. Account cancelled, playable until 2006-11-13 19:25:49. See you in Age of Conan!

  17. #17
    Originally posted by Kzak
    You might want to add the Nova Dillon armor into the armor selection, which ranges from 1 to 150(?)ish. Gives bonuses to *all* stats, but has low AC. Boss-drop only.
    Forgot about that one... added now.. thanks.
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  18. #18
    Sorry to report that there is one more pet bugged OE-wise.

    The Common Gladiatorbot nano requires 317 MC & TS, but for some reason, its OE limit is 274 MC & TS.

    I found this out by raising a petition, and this lvl 300 Engi GM popped up and proceeded to put the bot through a series of tests. He confirmed that the OE limit is 274 MC & TS. He said he will speak with the devs to have it fixed. However, in case they take their time on the matter, be informed that the Common Gladiatorbot is bugged.

    BTW, love your guide!!

  19. #19
    Originally posted by Turnpike
    Sorry to report that there is one more pet bugged OE-wise.

    The Common Gladiatorbot nano requires 317 MC & TS, but for some reason, its OE limit is 274 MC & TS.

    I found this out by raising a petition, and this lvl 300 Engi GM popped up and proceeded to put the bot through a series of tests. He confirmed that the OE limit is 274 MC & TS. He said he will speak with the devs to have it fixed. However, in case they take their time on the matter, be informed that the Common Gladiatorbot is bugged.

    BTW, love your guide!!
    Thanks for that one... added now.
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  20. #20
    I just started an engi a few days ago, and had to petition for Lesser Automaton, which is also OE bugged. I don't know the numbers for it, but at that level it's easy enough to just skip it. Might want to put it in your list though, for those who are just starting out.

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